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Honor thy big-screen fathers

Today is Father’s Day, a day to stop and reflect on the dad’s we have come to know and love.

It may not be your own dad, maybe someone else has served as a role model or mentor, and to them we tip our hats.

Other dads worth revering are the countless movie dads that have paraded across the big screen for decades. Here’s a look at a few of them who today, on Father’s Day, deserve a mention.

Gregory Peck in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” (1962) is perhaps the most idyllic dad ever to cross the silver screen. As a single father, Atticus Finch, with two kids, he is kind, patient, fair and loving. As a small town lawyer in the 1930s, he stands for right and reason in a high-profile case about an innocent black man accused of rape. And he never shields his children from the awful truth, but tries to explain the way of the world to them.

In 1987, “Three Men and a Baby,” starred Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson as three confirmed bachelors who soon fall head over heels in love with a “small package” that is left on their doorstep. Danson’s character, Jack Holden, is the father of the baby, but all three of the bachelors assume the role of loving and protective dad with humorous and heartwarming results.

In 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant is not a dad, doesn’t even really like children. But Laura Dern, who plays his assistant and love interest, would like to see the softer side of Neill when it comes to starting a family. The two are part of a team of dinosaur experts invited to tour an amusement park populated by dinosaurs. By the end of the movie, Neill has won the hearts of the park owner’s grandchildren. Neill protects the children over and over, while enlightening them on dinosaur fun facts. One of the last scenes in the movie is of Neill sitting in the rescue helicopter with the two kids resting their heads on his chest as they sleep. Dern smiles knowingly.

Oddly enough, Chevy Chase portrayed a heck of a dad in three movies. In 1995’s “Man of the House,” Chase as Jack is the potential stepdad of Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ character Ben. After Jack moves in with mom Farrah Fawcett, it’s up to Ben to chase Jack away. He devises a plan to invite Jack to join him on a camping trip with the Indian Guides, in hopes of doing him in. However, Jack sticks it out and proves he will be a worthy dad.

And don’t forget Chase as the lovable Clark Griswold in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” where he only wanted to give his family the best vacation ever at Walley World, and in “Christmas Vacation,” where he tried his darnedest to create an old-fashioned Christmas for his family and relatives.

Two movies show dads going above and beyond to save their kidnapped daughters. Liam Neeson, in the 2008 thriller, “Taken,” portrays retired CIA agent Bryan Mills who must use all the tricks of the trade to find and rescue his daughter, who has been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring. He never gives up, even when facing insurmountable odds.

In the 1995 movie, “Nick of Time,” Johnny Depp is cast in a rare role as regular guy Gene Watson, an accountant who arrives at Union Station in Los Angeles with his young daughter. A man and woman approach and convince him that they are police officers and he must accompany them to a van. Watson is handed an envelope and told he must kill the person pictured by 1:30 p.m. or Watson’s daughter will be killed. The target is the governor who is stopping at a hotel for a campaign speech. Watson’s nightmare intensifies when he learns that many of the governor’s aides are in on the plot. Throughout the movie, his daughter’s safety is always his driving force.

One of the favorite animated movie dads has to be Mufasa in Disney’s “The Lion King,” released in 1994. He is playful with son and heir-to-the-throne Simba yet firm when necessary. And he gives the ultimate sacrifice, his life, to save his son. Even so, later in the movie, Simba is visited by Mufasa’s image in the sky who gives Simba worldly advice to take his rightful place as king.